Police: SC woman tried to strangle herself with bra strap in effort to avoid jail

SPARTANBURG, S.C. (WSPA) – An intoxicated South Carolina woman tried to strangle herself with her bra saying she would rather kill herself than go to jail, Spartanburg County deputies say.

The incident started Sunday around 6:45 p.m. when deputies said they got a call of a suspicious person on Riverrun Drive.

When deputies arrived, they said they saw an “extremely unsteady” Christy Lynn Kelley, 31, walking along the street and falling down several times.

Kelley told deputies she had been staying with friends at a home on Riverrun, officials said.

She said the people in the house assaulted her and burned her leg with a blow torch, according to deputies. Deputies said Kelley did have burns, but refused to have EMS examine the wounds.

She told deputies that the home was under foreclosure and the occupants were living there without power – with some of the residents cooking meth in the basement, sheriff’s officials said.

Deputies then talked to the people in the home, who said that Kelley had been staying at the house because she didn’t have anywhere else to go, deputies said.

The people at the house also said Kelley had taken Klonopin  – an anti-seizure, anti-anxiety drug – and became enraged and attacked them, according to officials.

Kelley then took household cleaner and threw the substance around the house, a woman in the house told deputies.

The woman also said that burns on Kelley’s legs were self-inflicted, officials said.

The man in the house said that Kelley became mad because he wouldn’t date her or have sex with her, deputies said.

Deputies then arrested and handcuffed Kelley and began to escort her to a cruiser when she tried to pull away from them several times, according to officials.

Deputies said Kelley was put in the backseat and was somehow able to get her hands, which were cuffed behind her back, in front of her.

Kelley then took the strap of her bra and wrapped it around her neck in an attempt to strangle herself, according to deputies.

She told deputies that she would rather kill herself than go to jail, officials said.

Authorities were able to restrain Kelley, but they said she was extremely belligerent.

At one point they said she tried to remove her clothes and continually hit her head against the partition between the front and back seats of the patrol car, according to deputies.

She was issued a ticket for public disorderly conduct.